when my daughter came to visit last summer she got her motorcycle permit and as i'de just finished her '66 bmw r-60 we put about 300 miles on it then.
christian just returned last thursday and lo and behold is a fully licensed motorcyclist!!!!!! we're heading out 2-day to put more miles on and seeing how the weather forcast is beautiful am hoping for 1000 miles in a few days. my only work obligation is sat and sun so am taking all week off ( mon-fri) and hope to due some long overdue riding.
she is the proud owner of the bmw and a '78 900 gts ducati although the duke has been down since i bought it 4 yrs ago with an electrical failure (needs an ignition system as did the 860 gt i bought the same week). it's not a paso but still a duke and i think a darn good bike for her. think i'll turn her loose on the 907 and see what she thinks,should bring about an interesting reaction.

wiggs that's awesome ... that sounds like a fantastic adventure. I've got years to go before taking such a ride with my little girl, but it's something to daydream about and aspire to in the meantime.

Congrats to Christian on her license - and what a way to start out the motorcycle collection!

Enjoy!

Wiggs,

I've only got sons (19 and 15) so I don't have the Father / Daughter bond. It sounds like Christian is going to be every boy's dream. A girl and a Ducati, what a catch.

Paul

oh,what a day. christian and i started out on back roads to get her familiar with the bike again as it had been a year. 25 miles to bucyrus to gas up and thru town and it was small hiways to mid-ohio. we didn't stop at the track but rode on into amish country. here we had more small hiways and since it was a weekday (monday) traffic was little.
east on 39 to millersburg (i think) then south to coshocton then westish to mount vernon where we stopped at the local guzzi dealer who didn't have much. from there we headed west to u.s 23. about this time my clutch started to not fully disengage. this bike is also freshly rebuilt and only a few hundred miles on it. this problem did show up on a trip home from work and it turned out the screw and jam nut for the clutch arm had backed out so i tightened them real good. as i was riding i looked down and nothing looked out of place and i was wondering what it could be. with only 1 stop sign in the next 40 miles to worry about i wanted to get'er home and have a look.
once on 23 i was ahead of christian some but kept an eye on the mirror. about 10 miles from home and 190 miles ridden the thought of runnung out of fuel comes to mind. as i look into the tank i'm thinking i didn't tell christian anything about the reserve. about this time i don't see her behind me so i slow down and watch the mirror, still no bike so i turn and head back.
a few miles back there she is holding the bike in the grass. as i cross the median and head to her i see shoes,gloves and sheepskin in the berm!?!?!?!?!?!? park the bike and go to her noticing the damage to her bike and asking if she's ok and what happened. about this time the ems and highway patrol come up with lights and sirens going.
as the ems checks her over and agrees there's no need to transport her to the hospital they cover her road rash and leave her for the statey. after an hour with him and a $110 ticket we head for the house. we put her on the plane last friday on crutches with a sprained ankle and road rash so she could attend a wedding in kansas on sat then head for florida with her church
group for a vacation b-4 school starts.
it seems the bike started a tank slapper at 65 mph (100 kph) and she did her best to come thru it but couldn't quit overcome it. she's done something i haven't after all these yrs of riding. earlier in the trip i told her to turn her headlite on,turn the knob on the headlite and she reached for the steering damper knob, that and i didn't have the detent balls in the damper to keep it in place. the moral of the story is i should have told her to keep the knob fairly tight, should have put the detent balls in the knob and should have stopped when my clutch wasn't working right and had a look see.
christian was a real trooper the whole time and still wants to ride. we were gonna go shopping for a coat and helmet anyway and she now has a nice teknic coat with armor in the elbows ,shoulders and back, a good helmet and gloves.
the bike has a nasty valve cover,bent bars and some scrapes but that is the least of my worries. it can wait till time permits.
this all happened hrs after i posted the original post. just took some time to tell ya'll about it.

Glad to hear that her injuries were fairly minimal. Sounds like you were on a rather nice route until the incident. Nice that she still wants to ride.

Regards, B

Jeez, Mike! I'm sorry to hear about Christian, man ... that must've put an awful feeling in your stomach. I'm glad she's ok though, hope she mends up well. What a story she'll have, once the crutches and bandages are gone. I'm glad it hasn't put her off the experience too. But really glad to hear she's essentially alright. Hope you're alright with it all, too ...

Oh, wiggs, I'm so sorry to hear aboput christian's tumble. But boy, she was lucky - coming off in a tank-slapper could easily have been so much worse, because you get no time to duck.

Your riding season will be drawing to a close soon, so there'll be time for repairs and recuperation.

A bit a bad luck is unavoidable, and I reckon a biker who hasn't come off is missing something. Don't tell me you haven't come off! (you said she's now done something you haven't).

I have always found that when you come off, as soon as you get back on and ride, straight away it stops hurting so much.